La Pacífica
Coming from the shadowed Highlands to the perpetual war-zone of the Distrito Capital, these worshipers bring only death. Both in love and in tribute, they bring the living to their end, because death is only the beginning. Happy to die and wanting to share, they are another blight on the people of the District. History Little is known about the cult besides those facts observable to the people of Distrito Capital; they strike indiscriminately, they worship the God of Death, and they own a howitzer. This combination is made worse by their unwavering faith in their cause: the end of all life on earth. The Peaceful are not motivated by hate or greed however, despite the thoughts of the locals. They are driven by both a love for their fellow man, and for their God. The Cult would be founded as an offshoot of a pre-war cartel, the members being caught crossing the border by the Great War. They attempted to finish their run but were attacked by frenzied townspeople. Forced to kill them, they fled back into the desert, fearing the Border Patrol or National Guard were on their way. It would slowly dawn on them that the world had truly ended after all, and that no one would be meeting them. They talked it over amongst themselves, and all decided to return to Mexico. While some only wanted to return home and others wanted to rebuild their criminal network, all felt it would be a better place to be. That would prove hard to judge, as the chaos was not confined to the U.S. hordes of desperate people trying to escape the gangs and radiation fled as fast as they could, some trying to loot some supplies to carry them along. The delivery crew managed to return to Ciudad Victoria before the gasoline in their truck ran out, all promising to meet at that spot in three hours. Only five of those eight would return, with a dozen other members of their organization in tow, along with their families as well those of the delivery crews. Fearing they would become targets in the panic, they carjacked three trucks and loaded them down with what supplies they could find and themselves, and drove off to the mountains. The lack of towns and remote valleys were just what the group were looking for, rarely seeing any other humans in their first months in the area. Here they began to attach religious meaning to the war, seeing it not as a curse but a blessing by Santa Muerte. In doing this, she also transcended her past form and became a true god. The remoteness of the valley and the paranoia in which the guards held outsiders meant they had little interaction, deepening these beliefs in the populace. They would slowly became just another ghost story for the travelers of Tamaulipas over the next centuries, a group of living skeletons peeling the flesh from the living while dancing around a burning idol. They re-emerged into recent memory in 2279, when reports of explosions given by travelers throughout The Highlands. The reason for this became clear later in the year, when the small village of Restless Sleep was completely destroyed, it appeared to have been bombed off of the map. The attack had destroyed all recognizing landmarks, rendering the cozy settlement into a large gravel pit. This was due to the looting of a previously undiscovered American armory. Used by the occupying military leading up to the Great War, the armory contained various small arms and armor, but the cult had their eyes on only one prize. One of the sheds contained an intact howitzer and several hundreds shells, which they then spent months hiding throughout the winding mountain paths near their home. After this they began what several prominent figures across the District have called their 'Crusade'. Fortunately for the living, their low numbers and unwieldy nature of the howitzer having prevented any large massacres so far. As the 2280s wore on however, the cultists became more skilled in their craft, able to strike more suddenly than before and with greater casualties. This has caused some adventurers, concerned citizens and mercenaries to try and end the group, but have seem to have failed at this. Activities Besides the murders and shellings, the worshiper are rumored to be involved in a variety of other pursuits, few of them pleasant. Robed visitors to various slave markets have been reported throughout the District recently, causing some to assume the group. They are known to have deep hatred for ghouls however, viewing them as cursed to wander the earth forever. This hate has the interesting effect of making them try and protect ghouls, so they may never cross over. A small handful of preachers exist within the cult, marked by their faith and visions of the god, and they are taken aside by The Dreamer. He tasks them with traveling the wastes and preaching their message and the love of their god. They have been run out of many settlements, but manage to sway some with their sermons, adding fresh blood for the gun crew. Category:Groups Category:Mexico Category:Tamaulipas Category:Cults